xcel
04-11-2007, 06:54 AM
The Vermont case is first in a series expected to be heard around the country as the auto industry tries to knock down the carbon limits. (http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070411/BUSINESS01/704110329/1014)
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/2007_Chevrolet_Aveo3.jpg AP - April 11, 2007
GM will have to do far better then offering the AVEO to achieve future lower CO2 emissions with the resultant higher Fuel Economy standards.
A General Motors Corp. executive told a federal judge Tuesday that vehicle carbon emission reductions ordered by California and 10 other states would require average fuel economy standards for cars and the lightest category of trucks of 43.7 miles per gallon.
"The standards we've had to make changes to in the past are incremental," said Alan Weverstad, executive director of GM's environment and energy unit. Lowering carbon emissions as much as the states want will involve "fuel economy requirements that are just unbelievably extreme," he said.
The testimony came as a federal trial got under way, before U.S. District Judge William Sessions III, in which automakers are trying to block states from adopting new standards aimed at lowering emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas tied to global warming.
The companies argue that reducing carbon requires improving fuel economy, since carbon emissions are proportional to the amount of gasoline burned. And they say fuel economy, under a 1975 federal law, is solely under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The states argue that they can regulate carbon emissions as a tailpipe pollutant under another federal law, the Clean Air Act.
That 1970 law set up a two-tiered system under which California and other states that have joined it are allowed to set limits on pollution from vehicles that are more stringent than those set by the federal government. States could choose either the federal or the California rules.
California amended its rules in 2005 to add carbon dioxide to the list of pollutants it has regulated for decades. So far, 10 other states have adopted the updated California rules.
The Vermont case is first in a series expected to be heard around the country as the auto industry tries to knock down the carbon limits. It is also the first since the Supreme Court ruled last week that carbon emissions can be regulated under the Clean Air Act.
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/2007_Chevrolet_Aveo3.jpg AP - April 11, 2007
GM will have to do far better then offering the AVEO to achieve future lower CO2 emissions with the resultant higher Fuel Economy standards.
A General Motors Corp. executive told a federal judge Tuesday that vehicle carbon emission reductions ordered by California and 10 other states would require average fuel economy standards for cars and the lightest category of trucks of 43.7 miles per gallon.
"The standards we've had to make changes to in the past are incremental," said Alan Weverstad, executive director of GM's environment and energy unit. Lowering carbon emissions as much as the states want will involve "fuel economy requirements that are just unbelievably extreme," he said.
The testimony came as a federal trial got under way, before U.S. District Judge William Sessions III, in which automakers are trying to block states from adopting new standards aimed at lowering emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas tied to global warming.
The companies argue that reducing carbon requires improving fuel economy, since carbon emissions are proportional to the amount of gasoline burned. And they say fuel economy, under a 1975 federal law, is solely under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The states argue that they can regulate carbon emissions as a tailpipe pollutant under another federal law, the Clean Air Act.
That 1970 law set up a two-tiered system under which California and other states that have joined it are allowed to set limits on pollution from vehicles that are more stringent than those set by the federal government. States could choose either the federal or the California rules.
California amended its rules in 2005 to add carbon dioxide to the list of pollutants it has regulated for decades. So far, 10 other states have adopted the updated California rules.
The Vermont case is first in a series expected to be heard around the country as the auto industry tries to knock down the carbon limits. It is also the first since the Supreme Court ruled last week that carbon emissions can be regulated under the Clean Air Act.